Read Online Doc Featherstone's Return by Stephani Hecht - Free Book Online Page A

letting anything get between me and Ash.”
    “Are you sure he still even wants you?”
    Joshua pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, in fact, I’m sure that he’s pretty pissed at me still. I’m going to have some work to do to earn his trust back.”
    Shane clapped him on the back. “I never thought I’d see this day.”
    “What?”
    “Where some itty, bitty Hawk would bring Doc Featherstone down to his knees. If it wasn’t so pathetic, I might laugh.” Shane stopped, cocked his head to the side, then continued, “No, I think I’m still going to laugh.”
    “I’m sorry about Scarlett.”
    “Yeah, so am I. She was a good assassin. It was a bitch that she had to go out the way she did.”
    “What are you guys going to do now?”
    “We’re going to give her a funeral per our customs and then I need to look for a replacement.
    With Tatum basically on retirement, I’m running low on killers.”
    Joshua gave him a dry look. “I’m sorry to hear about your problem.”
Shane, as usual, missed the message. He just shrugged. “I know. I keep asking Mitchell to let me promote Andrew, but he keeps saying no, so I’m going to have to look for outside resources for this. I need at least two warm bodies, and since he also wants me to look for some assassins for Chris’s pack, I’m going to have my work cut out for me.”
    “It sounds like you have a tough job.”
    “You have no idea, Doc. Plus Ava wants me to take her to some movie about fairies. How can I tell her no?”
    Joshua smiled as he thought about the little Leopard girl. He didn’t think there was a shifter alive that could deny her anything. “I don’t think you can.”
    Shane pulled his hood over his head. “Well, I better get going, I have a kill to do and a funeral to take care of before I can go home tonight.”
    With that, he was off. Joshua shook his head as he wondered for the first time what it was that made Shane…well, Shane. How he could talk about movies in one breath and murder in the next like they were the same thing. But then again, Shane was unique like that.
    Since Joshua knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he went into the infirmary to help out. Not only was there a huge cleanup to take care of, but Scarlett had been very thorough in making a mess
of things.
    When he walked to the spot where Kallen had made a stand and saw the blood still there, his stomach blanched. Had it not been for the Hyena, Ash would be dead. Joshua owed Kallen so much.
    If it took him his whole life, he would find a way to make it up to him.
    Everybody else was busy with other patients, so Joshua got out a mop and bucket and began to clean up the blood. It was normally a job an orderly would do, but at the moment, Joshua wasn’t a doctor, he was a man who was grateful to the one who had saved his mate.
    Mate?
    Yes, there was no doubt in his mind that Ash was his mate. Which meant Joshua had one thing to do. It wouldn’t be easy, and once he did it, there would be no going back, but he had no choice. It had to be done.
    Although he’d rather do it face to face, he didn’t want to leave HQ with Ash fresh out of surgery. So Joshua put up the mop and went to his office. Taking a deep breath to steel his nerves, he picked up the phone and called home.
    “Featherstone speaking,” his father answered, all business as usual.
    “Father, it’s me, Joshua.”
    “Hello, Joshua. You left in such a rush. We didn’t even have time for a proper farewell.”
Joshua sighed. As always with his father, his spoken word was so proper and stiff. He never relaxed, never even around his own family. Yet everybody wondered why Joshua was such a crank at times. If they only knew his history, they’d understand.
    “I had to get back to my mate,” Joshua said.
    Might as well get right to the heart of the topic and get things over with. No sense in dragging things out. The outcome would be the same either way.
    “Mate? You never mentioned you found